CSR and Communication create and maintain employment. Dircom organizes a conference with the Ministry of Employment support

Madrid, 21st December 2012 – Managing properly the communication function and corporate responsibility is essential to create and maintain employment. This is the main outcome of the conference on the theme “Communication and CSR as strategic elements to create and maintain employment”, organized by Dircom, the Spanish association of communication directors, in cooperation with the Spanish Ministry of Employment.

Miguel ángel García, the General Director of CSR at the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, claimed that “you can be socially responsible even when downsizing your business, if outplacement programs are carried out and objective criteria are followed”. He also claimed that “the national CSR plan will be effective from the first quarter of 2013”.

According to José Manuel Velasco, President of Dircom, coherence is the big challenge for communicators: “you need to tell what you are going to do, then do it”. He also underlined that “Dircom, as an association, is contributing to create employment in the communication industry”.

Carlos Sánchez Olea, Dircom Vice-President, stressed that “in order for CSR to contribute to increase the value of a company, it’s necessary to build an engaging message which conveys the company’s specific principles and attitude through the combined management of expectations, perception, reputation and positioning of the brand”.

At the round table moderated by Núria Vilanova, Dircom board member, Javier López Galiacho, Director of CSR at FCC, and Pilar Suárez Inclán, Director of Communication at Reale, gave their contribution from the perspective of a big company. According to Vilanova, communication and CSR are “the main assets enabling companies to cope with globalization, the search for innovation and with the management of change to implement new ideas”.

Suárez Inclán explained how his company uses communication to meet its employees’ expectations. In this way “we manage to make them feel more competitive, more proud of our brand and of our culture”, he pointed out.

Later on, during the round table on “Communication and responsibility as allies for the development of small and medium-sized companies” moderated by Marcos González, General Manager at Media Responsable, Ricardo Trujillo, CSR analyst at Forética, claimed that companies are increasingly integrating CSR in their value chain, as “consumers are more and more conscious of what they buy”. Moreover, “employees consider CSR as a key element when deciding where to work, therefore this is something directly affecting their commitment to the company” he stressed.

According to Carlota Domínguez, Director of Communications at the Spanish Confederation of small and medium-sized companies, “the new technologies and the new opportunities that open up the world of communication are a chance to improve the small and medium-sized companies’ competitiveness”.

According to Paloma Miña, Communication Manager at Adams, the strategy for small and medium-sized companies’ development includes the following elements: motivation, persistence, teamwork, on-going training, communication and responsibility.

During the last debate, which focused on “Communication and responsibility in the new organizational models”, it emerged that people are the company’s main asset and the key to reach the organizations’ goals in the competitive market.